


Voltron: Legacies

by southofthesky



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Friendships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Future Fic, Grief/Mourning, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I actually have a beta this time?, Implied/Referenced Character Death, LGBTQ Character, Multi, POV Alternating, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Team as Family, Weekly Updates, Work In Progress, unfortunately
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28503234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/southofthesky/pseuds/southofthesky
Summary: It's been 30 years since Voltron saved the universe for the final time. The Lions disappeared to the far reaches of the universe and their paladins went their separate ways, living the lives they had always deserved to live. The duty of protecting the universe has fallen to the Galactic Coalition, creating bridges and sharing scientific and cultural knowledge across the stars.When the Galactic Coalition is implicated in the disappearance of one of the paladins, an unassuming group of young people must work together to secure the fate of the galaxy.
Comments: 28
Kudos: 16





	1. Cadets

_Intro to Quantum Physics_ is not a fun class for people that don’t care about Quantum Physics. Kai is one of those people. It’s nothing against the teacher, Commander Holt does her best to make it at least semi-enjoyable, but even with the weirdly up to date memes and the occasional roast of one of his classmates, Kai couldn’t find a class anymore boring. He wasn’t at the Garrison to be a scientist, he was there to be a pilot. This class was not applicable to him, and yet here he was, wasting away because _Zero Gravity Combat_ was filled with upperclassmen and students that “actually care about their grades”.

“Will you stop that?” His table partner, Luz, was actually trying to take notes from the holo-screen upfront. Kai rolled his eyes.

“Stop what?” He asked, eyes not leaving Commander Holt. They were far enough back that she wouldn’t notice them talking if they were quiet and looked like they were paying attention. Plus, their teacher seemed to be on another one of her fast-paced tangents about something no one in the room understood.

“Bouncing your leg,” she responded through gritted teeth. “It’s shaking the table.”

He halted the subconscious movement and let his eyes flit over to his partner. Her hair was a disaster, pulled into a bun that had pieces sticking out in all directions like she’d simply rolled out of bed and walked to class. Knowing Luz, she probably had. The dark strands framed her clenched jaw perfectly as she poorly attempted to mask how annoyed she was with him. _Ah, the simple pleasures in life._ There was one thing Kai liked about Holt’s class, and that was the golden opportunity to piss Luz Alto off. Eyes back on the front of the classroom, Kai slid his chair back and dropped his Garrison issued boots on the table. Luz stiffened as he smirked.

“Kekumano, are you confusing my classroom with a zoo?” Holt asked from the front of the classroom. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she did not look amused.

Kai was quick to the punch, beaming wide as he swung his feet back down to the floor. “Just trying to make Luz feel more at home.”

Luz glared back at him, her gray eyes sharp steel. Some of his classmates snickered at the comment. “Sorry for speaking out of turn Holt,” he met Luz’s gaze, “they don’t keep wild dogs in zoos anyway.”

Metal screeched against the tile floor as Luz jumped at him. Kai defensively threw himself out of his chair, shoulder hitting the cold ground hard. His hands flew up in defense across his face. He was not getting another broken nose.

“Alto! Kekumano! Admiral Iverson’s office. Now.”

Holt did not look happy. Her face was flush and there was a tight frown splashed across her angular features. Luz was standing over him, fists balled at her sides, expression sour, and chest rising and falling sharply with her breathing. She looked ready to kill him at a moment's notice. The entire class was staring at them, eyes wide and mouths in small o’s. You could hear a pin drop. _Shit_. He knew he was pressing the girl’s buttons, but she’d always had a bit more control. Luz seemed to feel the eyes on her all at once, head swinging wildly from side to side and taking them all in. She almost seemed to panic before her jaw set. Then, she turned on her heel and walked briskly out of the classroom.

The deafening sound of the door slamming shut shocked him out of his stupor. Quickly scrambling to his feet, Kai drew his classmate’s attention back to him. He shot Thora Birch a wink before dusting off his uniform and proudly following the dark-haired girl out of the classroom.

He was finally alone, and Kai let out a breath of air. Shoulders slumped and feet dragging behind him, Kai walked as slowly as he could to Iverson’s office as if taking longer would make it all disappear. His parents were going to kill him for this. He had to pick his battles with them and he already had less than satisfactory grades. A behavioral infraction on top of that was going to send them over the edge. He was not looking forward to the long talk they were going to have over the phone that night or to Iverson chewing him out when he finally made it to his office.

The man had been working at the Garrison since before the invasion and it was said that working with unruly cadets for all of those years had broken any caring bone in his old, overweight body. His secretary, Mrs. Spitnak, wasn’t anybody to scoff at either. Her cold stare sent shivers down your spine before you even got to Iverson. She was sure to give Kai a good one before he stepped through the door into the office.

“Glad you could finally join us, Kekumano. Did you get lost?” Iverson was standing by the window, turned away from the cadets. He was as straight as a board, feet shoulder-width apart, hands clasped behind his back. Luz was slumped in one of the chairs facing his desk, legs crossed and arms folded. She must have fixed her hair on the way in because it was now pulled into a standard ponytail at the base of her neck, not a follicle out of place. Kai sneered. _Two-faced little . . ._

“No sir, just wanted to put some distance between myself and the lovely Miss Alto.”

“Shut your mouth and take a seat.” Kai followed orders quickly, sitting up straight in an attempt to look more professional. Iverson didn’t even bother to turn around and see it. “Commander Holt called on your way down here. She had some very interesting things to say about how your physics class went today.”

Iverson finally turned to them as he spoke, the sound of his heavy boots hitting the floor making Kai wince. “So what I want to know, is why you two seem to think that this is acceptable behavior? The Galaxy Garrison’s mission is to train the next generation in a universal legacy of peace, scientific growth, and discovery, NOT to babysit a couple of cadets with anger issues!”

“Alto!” She dropped her feet evenly to the floor and sat up straight as he shouted her name. “If you end up in my office for attacking this kid or anyone else for this matter one more time I will send you straight back to the streets we pulled you off of!”

“Kekumano!” He met Iverson’s glare, biting the side of his cheek. “I’ll be calling your parents. I’m sure they won’t be happy that you’re spending your time here dragging your sister’s name through the mud!”

The man sat in his chair, his good eye boring into the children’s souls as he spoke. “For the next two weeks, you two will be spending your personal hours assisting our custodial staff around the base. Report to the flight simulator at 1800 hours and don’t be late. Alto, I’ll be sending Officer Blake a memo regarding today’s events. Dismissed.”

* * *

Kai was the last to show up to the Garrison’s version of detention. Showing up right on time was like showing up late in their eyes, but they technically couldn’t reprimand him for it. The custodian, Luz, and a scrawny kid that Kai would’ve thought was a middle schooler touring the building if not for the orange and white uniform he was wearing, were all waiting for him outside the doors to the flight simulator. Luz was leaning against the wall like she couldn’t be bothered to support her own body and the kid couldn’t seem to stand still, shifting his weight from foot to foot impatiently. Kai gave them a wave as he approached. The custodian’s frown deepened.

“First years had their first run in the flight simulator today. You three will be cleaning out the puke while I go and do my actual job.” He spoke with a gravelly voice as he unlocked the door and pushed the supply cart he had with him inside, the cadets reluctantly following after him. He gave them all a grin. One of his front teeth was missing. “Have fun kids. Try not to kill each other.”

With that, he was gone and they were alone.

“Hey, guys! I’m Evan Yang but my friends call me Ev!” exclaimed the little guy in a sing-song voice. Kai gave him a half-hearted nod and Luz chose to ignore him, pretending to be engrossed in taking inventory of the supply cart. “What’re you guys in here for?”

“Got in a fight,” Kai replied as he crouched down next to Luz. He tried to reach for some Clorox wipes and she batted his hand away. _I guess I won’t try to help then_. He stood back up, knees popping, only to be startled by Evan’s little face being directly in front of him, causing him to stumble backward a few feet. _God, what was up with this kid?_

“You guys got in a fight? Who was it with? Was it Iverson? Iverson caught me breaking into the video storage room, that’s why I'm here.”

Kai blinked slowly. “You broke into the video storage room?”

“Well, I _tried_ to break into the video storage room. Would’ve gotten in if Iverson didn’t decide he wanted to get coffee in the middle of the night. Who even does that?” Evan grabbed the handle on the cart and started dragging it closer to the flight simulator, leaving Luz with a confused look on her face and a half-empty bottle of Windex. “Are you guys going to help me clean this thing or not?”

Kai gathered his wits before strutting after the kid, swiping the Windex from Luz as he passed her. She grumbled something incomprehensible as she trudged in after them.

The flight simulator was disgusting, but the cadets got to work. They had decided to split the area into thirds, Kai quickly calling the cockpit and Evan making a break for the communications station, leaving Luz with the area around the engineer’s seat. Kai was done with his section first, only having to spray clean the windows and wipe down the control board, and now sat in the pilot's chair, spinning back and forth while watching his companions work.

“Kai can you at least pretend to be working?” Luz complained from her place on her knees. “How do you even get puke in the main gearbox?”

“Hunk Garret puked in the main gearbox during a flight simulator run once,” Evan chimed in from where he was scrubbing at the floor.

Kai swung his chair around to face him, curious. “What, like the Voltron guy?”

Evan gave him a look, clearly disappointed in his lack of knowledge. “Yeah, like the Voltron guy. Paladin of the Yellow Lion, owner of Hunk’s Legendary Eats, used to train in the exact simulator you are failing to clean right now?”

“I’m pretty sure the paladins of Voltron weren’t using the same flight simulator thirty years ago, Evan,” replied Kai, letting the chair spin back around to face the blacked-out windows at the front of the cockpit. “And it wasn’t my idea to clean this thing in sections, I can’t help that I got the best one.”

“If you guys say the word Voltron one more time, I’m going to throw myself off the roof.”

“Good luck with that. The Garrison added a bunch more security to the roof access after the paladins-”

“Evan!”

“Sorry!”

Kai snickered and the simulator lapsed into silence. As the sound of scrubbing continued on behind him, he began to play mindlessly with the controls. His parents had called him to chew him out during dinner. Something about how he was wasting his time and if he wanted to be a nobody they would buy him a ticket home tomorrow. Then _Alani_ had called him from her post at the Galactic Coalition’s Headquarters to talk to him about why he was acting out, which was somehow infinitely worse than getting yelled at by both their parents and Iverson combined. Her holier than thou attitude made his skin crawl.

“You guys got room for one more?” Not recognizing the voice, Kai quickly stood up with a salute. There was a woman standing at the door of the simulator, loose golden curls set against the playful smile on her face. _What the hell did this lady think she was-_ his eyes caught sight of the gray of her hand resting against her hip. Oh. _Oh._

“Officer Blake!” he exclaimed, rushing over to shake her hand. “I’m Kai Kekumano-”

“Alani’s little brother?” she cut him off as she took his hand. It was cold. _Why did I even offer a handshake? I must look so stupid right-_ “From all the stories she told me I thought you’d be younger.”

“Yeah, well, I’m seventeen so-”

“Blake,” cut in Luz. Kai dropped the blonde’s robotic hand and shot Luz a glare for cutting in on his moment with the coolest girl in the Garrison. “Please tell me you're breaking me out of here.”

“As long as these guys are okay with finishing up without you.” Her eyes met Kai’s. They were blue like the ocean on a clear day. _I could get lost in those eyes_. “What do you think, Kekumano? Got everything here handled?”

“Me?” His hand clutched at his uniform. “Yeah, uh, I’ve got everything- everything is super handled.”

“Hey wait a min-” Kai slapped his hand over Evan’s mouth and smiled at her. She smiled back. _God, it’s like sunshine._ She mouthed a thank you before giving Evan a small wave. Luz rolled her eyes at Officer Blake’s bright attitude but Kai didn’t notice, too busy watching the woman leave. Then he felt something wet on his hand.

“Did you just lick me?”

“You were too lovestruck to let me go, genius!” Evan shoved Kai towards the area Luz had been working in only moments before. “And now you’re cleaning out the main gearbox.”


	2. Mettle

“Did you really have to do that, Blake? Watching Kekumano drool over you was literally the grossest thing I’ve ever seen and I was cleaning puke out of that gearbox,” huffed Luz as she trudged down the hallway. Stephanie gave the cadet a lopsided grin.

“I can take you back to finish up if you want.”

“I’m good thanks.”

They walked in silence, the slight bounce in Steph’s step off-setting the way Luz’s heels dragged against the floor. Stephanie peaked at Luz from the corner of her eye, trying to catch a glimpse of the girl smiling, but she had no such luck. Her mouth was pulled into its signature frown. Steph pouted a little but she didn’t let it get to her. She was pretty sure she’d only see Luz really smile if she watched Kekumano bomb a flight simulator run.

Their walk was quiet but short, as they quickly arrived at the Garrison’s 24-hour coffee lounge. It was a newer addition to the building, spearheaded by caffeine addict Commander Matthew Holt in the past few years. It was really just a souped-up staff lounge, with cadets only allowed inside at the heed of a higher level officer (which was the bane of senior cadets trying to track down an officer to let them in to get some caffeine at 2 in the morning during a late-night study session). Stephanie gave the barista a smile as they walked in, pointing at the large plush chairs tucked into the corner. He gave her a nod back, clearly understanding the message from the regular.

The duo took their usual seats and Steph got her first good look at Luz. The knees of her slacks were covered in grime from being hunkered down on the floor, her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and the front of her jacket was undone, showing off the  _ Killbot Phantasm  _ t-shirt she was wearing underneath her dress uniform. Steph stifled a snort at the sight of it. “I didn’t know you were a  _ Killbot Phantasm _ fan.”

Luz shot her a glare. “I’m not. Tomas gave it to me as a joke.”

“Did you laugh?”

Luz didn’t humor her with a response. Thankfully, the server-bot zipped over with their usual drinks to keep their meeting moving. Steph dropped a tip on the tray before sending it back over to the counter. It was pretty obvious that Luz wasn’t in the mood to talk, so Stephanie chose to people-watch as she enjoyed her iced latte. There were only a handful of people inside the lounge with them, none of whom she recognized. There was an officer on the other side of the room, coffee long forgotten and totally engrossed in his book. A senior cadet was downing espresso like a madwoman as she scribbled notes from her laptop into a spiral notebook, the junior officer that had accompanied her inside sat across from her half-asleep. He looked up and met her eye. She gave him a soft smile and a wave that he returned before letting his eyes fall shut again.

“Can you stop doing that?”

Stephanie crinkled her eyebrows as she turned back to Luz. She had buttoned her jacket back up when Steph wasn’t paying attention. Now she was leaning back in her chair, arms folded over her chest. “Stop doing what?”

“Smiling at everyone. It’s weird.”

“It’s called being nice, Luz. You should try it sometime.” The teenager huffed at Steph’s commentary, sipping from her drink as an excuse not to reply. The older girl let out a sigh. This kid could not make it any harder to carry a conversation. “So do you want to tell me about what happened in Commander Holt’s class today?”

“I thought Iverson sent you a  _ memo _ .”

“He said there was an incident with Kekumano. I want  _ you _ to tell me what happened.” The girl was unresponsive, finding the cold, white hallways outside of the lounge much more interesting than the conversation Stephanie was trying to have with her. Steph knew that she’d misstepped bringing up Luz’s brother, even if it wasn’t intentional and now she was paying the price for the mistake. Fingers drumming against her thigh, she decided to break the silence between them. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Luz looked back at her, scanning the blonde quizzically. “Where are you going this time, fly-girl?”

“I’m not  _ flying _ anywhere, thank you very much.” Steph had piqued Luz’s interest, who was now leaning forward in her chair, fingers wound tightly around her coffee cup. Steph couldn’t hold back her smile. “I’m escorting someone to the GCH tomorrow. It’s all very hush-hush. I don’t even know who I’m taking yet.”

“Huh.” Luz leaned back, chewing on her bottom lip in thought. “Do you know what it’s for?”

“Not a clue. I’ll tell you everything when I get back if you promise to tell me about what happened today.” She extended her left hand. After looking between Steph’s hand and her bright smile a few times. Luz rolled her eyes all too dramatically but took Steph’s hand nonetheless. “It’s a date then. Next week. I’ll pick you up.”

Luz’s face seemed to soften for a moment as they broke hands, making Steph’s heart melt a little. It’d been a little over a year since they started having their meetings. They’d usually meet at least once a week to talk. Luz wasn’t the wordy type, but she’d let Steph tell her stories about her week, her family, and the people that tried and failed to hit on her. Luz would occasionally cut in with her thoughts, usually making Steph laugh. This week was one of those times that they had to meet more than once a week because of some incident Luz was involved in. It happened a lot more when they first started talking, but after a couple of months, they’d significantly decreased. Iverson took this as a sign that something Steph was doing was working. Steph was just glad that she was keeping Luz from getting kicked out of the Garrison.

“It did make me laugh by the way,” Luz spoke up. Steph cocked her head to the side. The younger girl’s face was trained on the ground. “The shirt.”

Steph smiled at her, reaching a comforting hand out to rest on Luz’s knee as she recalled the difficult memory. Luz stiffened at the cold touch and Steph yanked her hand back as she apologized. “Sorry. I forget this thing sometimes.”

“It’s cool, Blake. It’s not your fault or anything.”

Steph knew she was right, but it didn’t make the prosthetic on her wrist any lighter.

After finishing their drinks, Steph insisted she walk Luz to her room. The younger girl protested that she was old enough to walk by herself, but Steph was adamant that she was headed that way anyway. With her charge safely in her room where she wouldn’t be causing any more trouble, Steph was free to head off to the appointment she was now running incredibly late to. She was due for a check-in with her favorite Commander to make sure everything was functioning properly with her attachments. She’d been using them without much issue for years at this point, but she still had to go in every few months to make sure everything was in working order. Alien technology was finicky at best and she didn’t need her hand or her leg besereking on her at random.

Holt’s lab was actually one of Steph’s favorite spots in the Garrison. It was one of the only places within its walls that was messy. Every available surface was covered in stray tools and different projects that Katie, her brother, or one of her techs were working on. Sometimes Chip would be up and moving around assisting whoever was working, but by the time of night that Steph usually found herself stopping by, he’d already be in his charging port for the night. Iverson was always on Katie’s ass about cleaning up a little bit, but she never did. Steph admired her ability to tell the man no. It was a quality she wished she possessed.

She got to the lab, the sound of the door opening was drowned out by a metallic whirring. Katie and one of her assistants had welding masks covering their faces, knee-deep in a project that looked like a hunk of wires and metal to Steph. She was never gifted in the Garrison’s engineering courses. As the whirring came to a halt, Steph called out. “Hey Doc, I’m here for my checkup!”

Katie whipped around, mask coming off as she noticed the new presence in the room. The good doctor’s hair had grown since the last time Steph saw her, now lightly dusting her shoulders. Her eyes twinkled as she approached, wrapping the officer in her surprisingly strong arms. “Stephanie! I was beginning to think that you were avoiding me.”

“Please, I couldn’t avoid you if I tried,” Steph replied as she sat down in her normal chair, laying her arm out on the cool metal table. Katie leaned over it, connecting a cable to a small port in her hand, a holoscreen with lines of code popping up for her to work on. “I had to take Luz out after what happened in  _ your  _ class today.”

“Alto? She’s a real charmer that one,” an English accent cut through the air as another figure came up to the table to join Katie. “I don’t know why you agreed to mentor that girl she’s going to get herself kicked out of Garrison one of these days.”

“I’m sorry, Williams, did I ask for your opinion on the matter?” Hunter Williams was not Stephanie’s favorite of Katie’s technicians. He always had something to say about everything and Steph didn’t find it as endearing as he thought it was.

“I’m just saying, she’s a lost cause.”

Steph gave him a fake smile. “And I’m just saying if you don’t keep it to yourself, you might find my robotic foot up your ass.”

“Will you two stop? I don’t have children for a reason you know.” Katie pulled the cord out of Stephanie’s hand allowing the girl to roll her wrist around, flexing the silvery fingers. “How does it feel?”

“How’s a cybernetic hand supposed to feel?” she asked jokingly. Hunter snickered and Katie gave her a look. “It feels fine. Ready to take down a whole band of spice runners.”

“Are defensive capabilities functioning properly?” questioned Hunter.

Steph splayed out her fingers and quickly pulled them into a fist. Purple lines lit up across the metal as a low hum filled the air, her fist glowing brightly. If she hadn’t been a member of the Garrison there was no way she would have gotten such nice prosthetics. Katie had told her that they were originally Galran designs with a few enhancements from human and Altean scientists. They easily made her one of the Garrison’s most capable fighters and a highly sought after asset. She could have personally gone without that last part.

“Alright then, hop up here, let’s have a look at your leg.” Katie patted the table and Stephanie followed orders, rolling up her pant leg to give the scientist access to the port on the side of her calf. Her entire left leg and right hand had been replaced by cybernetics, but they both commanded exactly like her old limbs. It was a lot to get used to at first, but by now it was oddly easy to forget about. It always made for awkward handshakes.

“Well,” Katie announced, stepping back from the table, “everything seems to check out on my end. Are you sure everything is handling fine?”

“I’m sure. No clicks, pain, or bumps.” Katie gave her some side-eye for her less than serious attitude but allowed the officer to get down off of the table. She flexed her leg once or twice before taking a few steps. “See? I couldn’t be better.”

“That’s what I love about you, Blake,” chimed in Hunter as he pushed himself back into her line of sight. He’d found a rolling chair and was having a little too much fun in it. “Always so chipper and yet ready to drop kick me at a moment's notice.”

“You aren’t out of the woods yet, Williams, so watch your mouth.” His grin widened at that. She turned to Katie. “I should probably go get some rest. I have to be up early tomorrow.”

Hunter raised his eyebrows, rolling back into her field of vision on his stupid chair. He really thought he was all that and a bag of chips, huh? “What’s Iverson got you doing tomorrow, golden girl?”   


“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she asked with a cock-eyed grin. He stuck his tongue out at her before picking up a wrench and sliding his chair over to what he and Katie had been working on when she walked in. The commander placed a hand on Steph’s shoulder, catching her attention.

“You should really come by more often, Stephanie. You’re fun to have around when you aren’t shorting out my electronics.”

Steph laughed at her old teacher’s ribbing. “I’ll see you as soon as I get back. Promise.”

Katie gave her shoulder one last squeeze before stepping away to supervise Hunter’s work on their project. Steph watched them for a moment, Kate ripping the wrench from his hands and chastising him for starting again without her. He pushed himself away from her in the rolling chair, a laugh breaking his lips before Katie grabbed his ankle, pulling him to the floor with a thud. Steph laughed loudly at his misfortune, offering him a quick wave and a wink before leaving the lab. She really did need to get some rest before tomorrow. Missions like these had a tendency to be as tiring as they were secretive and she wasn’t one to disappoint her superiors.


	3. Mayday

It was only day two of her punishment and Luz was about ready to risk getting kicked out of school as long as she’d get the satisfaction of hitting that stuck-up son of a bitch that got her into this mess. Yeah, she said it. Kai Kekumano was actually the worst person she’d ever met. Ever. He’s had it out for her since day one and Luz was getting really, really sick of it. The idiot had clearly never liked that she didn’t find him charming. He had been flirtatious and annoying for months until she had told him that she didn’t find mediocre piloting and comical hubris attractive. He had to look up the word hubris. Luz called that a crushing defeat. At least she had until three weeks later when he had decided to make himself the thorn in her paw. That was the thing that pissed her off the most about Kekumano. He couldn’t be bothered to pay attention in class or do anything to better himself as a fledgling pilot, but he could devote tons of time and energy to making her life as miserable as possible.

Luz took a deep breath, halting her movements. She’d been mopping the same part of the floor for the last five minutes, glaring daggers at Kai while he wiped down tables. How he managed to look good while cleaning was beyond Luz.  _ Stupid sun-kissed tanned skin. Stupid curls. _ Maybe hyper-focusing on her burning hatred for him was digging into her own productivity.

“Hey, Luz!” she dropped her mop, startled by the chipper voice. Evan was floating behind her, gloved hands grasped tightly around the edges of the rolling trash can he’d been moving. His general demeanor and the fact that he stood an entire head shorter really made her question if he was even old enough to be a student here. “What was your mentor doing in the comms room this morning?”

“Blake? She’s not my mentor,” she replied, failing to see that she was sticking onto the wrong part of that question. Evan looked displeased at her lack of understanding, but he pushed forward anyway.

“Okay, weirdo, but I saw her heading through the standing teludav with Commander Takashi Shirogane this morning, so . . .”

“You what?” and now they had Kai’s attention. Great.

“It’s none of your business, Kekumano,” she snapped, long ponytail cracking through the air like a whip as she turned sharply to tell him off. “Go back to scrubbing tables.”

Kekumano completely ignored her, leaning down to Evan’s height and rephrasing his question. Typical. He was the worst cadet in the entire Garrison, she doesn’t know why she expected him to just follow orders with a snap, that just wasn’t who he was.  _ Brash, annoying piece of . . . _

“You saw Officer Blake go through the standing teludav with Commander Shirogane?” Kai clarified. Evan nodded matter of factly, clearly very pleased with himself to be privy to such information. “And  _ how _ exactly did you see that?”

“I was in the vents.”

Luz blinked at him. Sure, Evan was smaller than your average teenager, but was he really that tiny? Was it really that easy to climb through the vents in a government facility? “Why the hell were you in the vents?”

“Not important,” he brushed her off, looking over at Kai. “The Admiral sent them off to the Galactic Coalition’s Headquarters. It’s gotta be something crazy important for them to be calling the former leader of Voltron to the GCH with an armed escort right?”

“Are you sure it was the GCH, bud? Maybe the old kook just wanted to go visit his Voltron buddies or something.”

“I’m fifteen, not nine. I know how to eavesdrop.”

Kai squinted his eyes and bit down on his bottom lip as he seemed to consider the younger boy’s words. Luz rolled her eyes, bending down to pick up her mop. Whatever Blake was doing with old war heroes wasn’t her business. It wasn’t Kai or Evan’s business either, but that didn’t stop either of them from loudly theorizing about it instead of doing any actual work. After about the fifth question about what exactly Blake did when she wasn’t taking out space pirates or leading daring rescue missions, Luz stomped off to the other side of the cafeteria to get away from them. They didn’t take the hint and just started shouting their questions in her direction every few minutes. She couldn’t be happier when the custodian returned and gave them the boot twenty minutes early.

* * *

The boys gave up on conspiracy hour after a few days. Unfortunately, they still continued to talk the entire time they were held in detention together. She knew so much about two people she wanted to know literally nothing about. Evan, it turned out, got into trouble a lot and the only reason he hadn’t been kicked out yet was that his parents had some pretty deep pockets. Kekumano was . . . surprisingly kind to the younger boy. He’d let him go off on rants and raves about the stupidest things and whenever he threw in his two cents, it was clear that he actually listened to what the little guy was saying. He didn’t talk as much as Luz had expected him to based on the rest of his personality, but whenever he did it was about his home. The sun, the surf, and his friends, but never his family.

Evan did his best to include her in their conversations despite her continual lack of response, but he didn’t seem to mind all that much. Kai would direct a snide remark at him every so often and earn himself a sneer or a flash of her middle finger, but for the most part, she kept silent. Steph had suggested not replying when he tried to start shit a while ago, but every other time he’d just keep talking until she reached her breaking point. Now things seemed a little different. She didn’t know if it was Evan’s constant presence that kept either of them from losing their shit or Iverson’s threats the last time they had seen him, but something in the air was working to keep them fairly civil with one another. By the end of their two-week punishment, it was kind of nice. Like playful ribbing between actual friends, not people that had been in an actual fistfight. She almost felt like she would miss listening to Evan yammer about historical inaccuracies in  _ Voltron: Defender of the Universe _ or have Kai compare her to a particularly nasty sea creature with a wink.

Of course, Kekumano tried to ruin their tentative peace on the last day they were being forced to spend together. What else should she have expected?

“Hey! Alto!” Luz’s muscles tensed at the sound of Kai whisper-shouting her name.  _ Just ignore him _ , she told herself as she continued to angrily scrub between the titles of the boy's communal shower with a toothbrush. Why couldn’t he just stick to their routine and leave her alone for one more day? “Luz!”

Knuckles white on the toothbrush, she questioned him with all of the malice she could muster. “What do you want?”

“Have you heard anything about Officer Blake?”

“I am not indulging you two in your little Galactic Coalition conspiracy show-”

Kai seemed annoyed with her response as he started to cut her off. “No, it’s been, like, two weeks. Do you know when she was supposed to come back? Didn’t you schedule your next therapy ses-” he corrected himself as her eyes darkened “-meeting or something the last time you saw her?”

Her first instinct was to give him grief for his therapy comment, but she stopped herself as she actually processed what he was asking her. Between all of her classes and time spent in detention, Luz had forgotten about what Steph had said before she left.  _ Next week. I’ll pick you up. _ Her eyebrows furrowed. Hadn’t she just gone to the GCH with Commander Shirogane? Why would that run any longer than expected?

“Luz?”

She looked up at Kai, worry wavering in her voice. “She was supposed to be home a week ago.”

“A week?” Evan’s loud voice echoed throughout the showers before quieting himself. “What was she supposed to be doing?”

Luz shook her head, stammering out a response as she tried to think. “No. She usually- normally she tells me what she’s doing. I don’t think she even knew what she was supposed to be doing.”

The three teenagers looked between each other for a few moments as a pit began to drop in Luz’s stomach. Something was wrong. Stephanie had seemed so confident that this mission would only last a week. She was just taking someone to the Galactic Coalition Headquarters. Even if that someone was Commander Shirogane, it shouldn’t be taking this long. It was the GCH. That meant boring meetings and scientific studies, not space pirates and spice runners. She would have sent Luz a message if there was a change of plans, right? “Sorry I can’t make our next meeting, gotta go hunt down intergalactic criminals”. Especially if it wasn’t something dangerous. “Lol, they’re making me sit through more boring meetings, see you soon!” The radio silence was out of character, top secret mission or not.

The fiery determination set deeper into her bones with each passing second. Blake made time for her shit every single week and hadn’t complained once. She was always there for Luz no matter how many times she’d tried to push her away over the past year and if Blake needed her now . . . Luz was going to be there for her too. It was only fair.

“Whoa, where are you going? We still have another half hour-”

Luz whipped on Kai, a furnace blazing in her eyes as she spoke. “Officer Blake wouldn’t just disappear like this. Something happened to her, and I’m going to figure out what.”

“Luz-” Kai grabbed her wrist but quickly dropped it as her face contorted in disgust “-you don’t even have a plan. What’re you going to do, waltz into Iverson’s office and demand that he tell you what’s going on? He’ll bite your head off.”   


Her eyebrows furrowed at Kai’s words. The idiot was unfortunately right. Going in guns blazing was not going to work. But if something really was wrong . . . 

“There’s a vent opening above a table in the communications room.” Luz raised her eyebrows at Evan. He was spinning his toothbrush between his fingers as he rapidly spoke. “Given I can find another opening that Iverson hasn’t put a motion sensor on, I could probably sneak into the comms room and let you both in from the inside. If there’s a message from Officer Blake or the GCH about what she and Commander Shirogane are doing up there, it’ll be in their logs.”

Kai frowned at the younger boy. “If we get caught doing that we’re all getting kicked to the curb. I don’t know if you guys actually like going to school here but I-”

“Please, Kekumano,” Luz interrupted. “You couldn’t give a shit about being here. Evan just told us about the time he broke into the hangar to sit in one of the MFE’s, I’m pretty sure if they were going to kick him out they would’ve done it already. I’m the only one here with anything to lose and I’m going. Evan?”

Luz went straight for the door. If Kai wanted to grow a spine about the rules all of the sudden, that was his problem, not hers. Blake was her responsibility, not his. She wasn’t forcing him to do anything he didn’t want to. She couldn’t believe he had the audacity to get up on his high horse in the first place. She’d seen his 38% on his last physics test. Not that her 57% was much better in the eyes of their teachers, but at least she was trying. Kai didn’t even try when he was flying. It was all just natural talent. She’d been next to him plenty of times during flight instruction and there was no way he was actually listening while humming  _ Mamma Mia  _ in her ear. The balls of steel he had to insinuate that she didn’t want to go to school here-

“This one’s open, Luz.”

She blinked at Evan’s voice. She’d forgotten that he was following her in her Kai induced rage. Now, he was bent down on one knee, fiddling with the edge of a vent grate. “I’ll, uh, meet you at the comms room?”

“Don’t get caught!” His bright smile could fool anyone into thinking that he was pulling a school prank, not breaking into government files. With a mock salute, he dove headfirst into the small space. It was almost terrifying to watch him disappear into the vents. How the hell was he moving his shoulders like that? What kind of demon had possessed him to allow him to fit into that ridiculously small space?  _ Where’s Abuelita's rosary? _

Taking a deep breath, she tried to push the image of Evan contorting like a circus performer out of her head. Doing her best to put the vent cover where it had been on the wall, she made her way to the communication room double time. She needed to be on the other side of that door when Evan opened it or they were going to be in some deep shit. Even if no one saw it in the door logs or on the cameras, Evan would probably talk her ear off about talking mad shit to Kai and then failing to actually follow through with it. Not to mention Kai would have something new to tease her with and she didn’t need to give him any free ammo.

“Alto! Hey! Wait!”

“Kekumano?” Why was her head already hurting?

“I was thinking about your guys' plans here and honestly, it kind of sucks,” he fell into step beside her as he continued to speak. “My sister is posted at the GCH and I bet if you just give me a couple of hours I could call her and see if she knows anything. If not she could probably ask around or-”

“What the hell took you guys so long?” Evan’s whisper yelling from the entrance to the comms room cut Kai off.  _ Shit. _ Heart beating out of her chest, Luz broke into a jog, yanking Kai along behind her. Evan looked back and forth a couple of times as they ran, face contorted in fear as his hands urged them to move faster. Even when the door was shut safely behind them, Luz’s chest still fell up and down at a rapid pace. How did Evan even get there so fast? “Were you guys trying to get us caught?”

“Sorry I don’t move like a satanic monkey, Yang,” she retorted with a scoff. Kai smiled dumbly at her analogy.   


“A what?”

“Forget it,” she huffed, eyes tracing around the room. There were a few rows of desks and monitors scanning over all of the communications flowing in and out of the Garrison. One wall had a huge map of the Earth divided into its appropriate time zones, and the other had clocks showing the approximate time on other major planets. Altea, Daibazaal, Arus, Balmera X-95-Vox, and countless others that named themselves a part of the Galactic Coalition. Standing proud and tall in front of the comms desk was the Garrison’s pride and joy, the standing teludav.

Only two existed in the entire galaxy, the one in this room and it’s matching pair onboard the GCH. It was exactly what it sounded like, a miniaturized version of the huge teludavs that stood on the outskirts of most major GC systems. The Teludav Network had been the Galactic Coalition’s largest project outside of restoration efforts for the last 30 years, and the Garrison was currently being used to test out the smaller, more condensed version. Commander Holt had never shut up about it during Luz’s first year at the Garrison when they were only just finishing its initial construction, and now she hardly ever brought it up. Last Luz heard, they were still at the stage where you needed a space suit to walk through it without major side effects, but it was still pretty amazing nonetheless.

“We should probably start looking,” Evan said as he dropped in front of a monitor. “I don’t want to be here when the comm specs are done with dinner hour.” His fingers paused over the keys before turning to look at Kai and Luz. “I don’t suppose either of you know how these things work, do you?”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Kai echoed Luz’s own feelings of disbelief.

“Why would you suggest this plan if you didn’t know how the system worked?” She got right up in Evan’s face and he leaned himself away from her in his chair.

“Hey! I’m an idea guy! Not a think-things-through guy! What about anything I’ve told you all in the last two weeks made you think I would know how to-”

Every monitor in the room began flashing red all at once, the kids all jumping in response. Luz pointed a finger in the younger boy’s face. “What did you do?”   
  
“I didn’t do anything!”

“Then why does it look like you tripped an alarm?”

“I didn’t even touch anything!”

Kai’s voice cut into their argument. “Guys, look.”

They both turned their heads to see what Kai was pointing at. At the other end of the room, the standing teludav was beginning to stir. Pale blue lights were shining from the cracks in the machine, steadily glowing brighter as the thing came to life. Luz took an instinctual step back as she watched with wide eyes. It shook a few times, the tremors reverberating in her combat boots as a swirling pool of black and white lights suddenly sparked to life at the center of the machine. A wormhole. It was opening a wormhole. A dark mass began to form, slowly taking the shape of a person as they stepped through. Luz sucked in a breath, as the figure formed. They were so screwed. She was getting kicked out of the Garrison. Her parents were going to be so mad at her-

The figure stepped through the wormhole. She was clutching her left arm close to her body, the other one holding a blaster that was shakily aimed at them. The blonde took another step towards them with a noticeable limp as the teludav sputtered to a stop behind her, powering down quickly. Without the machine backlighting her, Luz could see the blood in her hair and the nasty bruise forming over her right eye. Her lip was split and still bleeding, but it was unmistakably Steph.

“Katie?”

That was the only word she weakly slurred out before she collapsed to the floor.


	4. Conspiracy

Hunter Williams and Katie Holt had a routine. Every day during their dinner hour, Hunter would run down to the mess and grab them both something before coming straight to the lab. Engineering may not have been his personal cup of tea, but Katie was getting it to grow on him. Especially with their current project. He’d only been her head lab tech for six months, but they’d known each other ever since he applied for a job at the Garrison. The entire time he’d been her right-hand man, they’d been working on improving the standing teludav. Katie had been pioneering the technology ever since the Galactic Coalition’s formation and he was incredibly lucky to even be in her presence, let alone help her create something that would let you walk straight from Earth to Altea in mere minutes.

It was still early evening, but Hunter could see the darkening sky through the windows that ran high along the lab's exterior wall. It’d be pitch black outside by the time he made his way back to his live-in quarters, but he didn’t mind. Seeing the stars on the walk over to staff housing was one of the better parts of his nights at the Garrison. It’s not that he wasn’t grateful for the opportunities he had, but Hunter wasn’t exactly the military type. He hadn’t had a night to himself in months and he was pretty sure he was starting to forget what the outside world was like.  _ Do people still go out to pubs? Do boys still think my accent is cute?  _

“Head out of the clouds, Williams.” Hunter snickered at the good professor. Her short hair had been pushed out of her face into a pathetic lion’s mane with the ugliest lime green headband he had ever seen, her glasses sat at an awkward angle on her face, and she was up to her elbows in machinery. “Something funny?”

“Of course not,” he replied with a grin, focusing back on his work. Mechanical engineering wasn’t his first love, but it was intellectually stimulating at the least. Did he have grease in parts of his nail beds that was never coming out? Sure. Did he lie awake at night wondering if he was doing the right thing with his life? Yeah, who didn’t? But he wasn’t one to half-ass things. If Katie wanted it done, it was getting done. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He respected her like that.

Time continued to pass as they worked in silence. Some nights they’d be chatting up a storm, but some they just sat quietly, content to work alongside one another with only a few stray words when one of them needed something from the other side of the table. Tonight was one of those nights, and he certainly didn’t mind the relative peace. His mind wandered as they worked, taking him back home and to that nice bottle of rosé waiting for him.

He was thinking about how nice it would be to snuggle up in his bed at the end of the night when it happened. The lab doors slammed open with a bang, nearly giving him a heart attack as he jumped straight out of his skin.

“Commander Holt!” shouted the boy, Kai Kekumano by the looks of it. He and Luz Alto were supporting a blonde girl between them. At least he thought she was blonde. The entire top of her head, lulled over and facing the floor, was matted down with a thick dark liquid. A glimpse of steel gray on her right hand told him who it was. Stephanie. “Please, help-”

Katie started moving, grabbing important bits and tools off of their work table to clear a space for her. Hunter had less precision than her, taking as much as he could in his arms at once and dumping it to the floor without an ounce of grace. A smaller boy he’d never met brushed the smaller parts to the ground as Luz and Kai limped over, helping Stephanie onto the cold metal of the desk. She groaned, head rolling to the side, eyes scrunched tight. The right side of her face was almost completely purple and her upper lip was busted, dried blood trickling down her chin and now starting to run off to the side. His hands moved instinctively, brushing loose strands of bloodied hair away. Where was her head bleeding from? How bad was it?

“What the hell happened?” Katie’s voice was strong and firm as she took in the officer’s injuries. Her good arm was in an awkward position that it shouldn’t have been able to lie in. A dark stain below her right knee cap told him she was bleeding down there too. Hunter had never heard the commander sound so serious.

Luz opened her mouth, but couldn’t come up with anything to say. The little guy spoke for them. “We don’t know. We were in the comms room and . . . she just came through like this.”

“Why were you in the-” Katie cut herself off as the teenagers' faces flooded with guilt. “It doesn’t matter. Williams, grab the first aid-”   


“On it.” He moved with a speed he didn’t know he had, snatching the medkit from its place on the back wall and running back. A few bandaids fluttered to the floor as he threw it open, but it didn’t matter. They weren’t going to need them anyway. Hunter went straight for the bio scanner, all Garrison first aid kits were equipped with them. It could spit out a fairly accurate med-scan in less than a minute. He’d never seen why they needed them until now. Pressing the button, he slowly moved it over Steph’s form. “Major laceration to the lower right leg, minor fracture to the left radius, blunt force trauma to face and cranium.”

The younger kid looked pale as a ghost at his words. Luz’s mouth was a hard line but her eyes were filled with a telling worry. Kai was the one to speak, face unreadable as he began to take charge. “Okay, Evan, help get her jacket off and then make her a sling. I don’t care what you use. You-” he pointed at Hunter “-try to fasten a splint for her. Quick and dirty is better than nothing. Luz, Commander, take a look at her leg, you can roll up her pants but that thing is going to need to be cleaned at the least and stitched at the worst.”

They seemed to follow his words without instruction, Hunter helping her sit up so that the small guy could pull her jacket off. She peered her eyes open at him. “Williams?” She asked in a dry voice. “What’re you doing here?”

“It’s okay Steph, just close your eyes-”

“No!” Kai cut him off. “Eyes open, Officer Blake. You took a pretty nasty blow to the head and you need to stay awake for us. Tell us what happened.”

Evan pulled the jacket free, the blonde wincing as it slipped over her fractured wrist. Tenderly taking hold of it, Hunter laid it gently on her chest as he started digging through the medpack again. “I was taking . . . I was taking Commander Shirogane to the GCH . . . something- something happened.”

“What happened? Where’s the Commander?” Her face scrunched up at Evan’s loud voice. Hunter shot him a glare but he seemed to miss it.

“They took him. I- I found him, but they took him.”

“Who took him, Blake?” Hunter found himself asked, pressing a popsicle stick down to her wrist as she winced. It wasn’t a great splint but it was all that they had. “Try to remember who took him.”

“He went missing after a . . . from the party . . . followed after . . .”

“Stephanie, you need to focus,” added Katie. She was dabbing at the gash on her leg with cotton balls, dripping with hydrogen peroxide, Luz stood at the ready with a gauze pad. “Who took Shiro from the party?”

Steph looked about ready to pass out ass Hunter finished wrapping her homemade splint. He couldn’t blame her. She looked more dead than alive. A loud gasp escaped her lips as Evan attempted to maneuver her arm into the sling he’d fashioned from the lab coat Hunter had discarded before he left to get dinner. “It was the GCH. The Galactic Coalition took him.”

The room stilled at her words, everyone pausing in their movements. Kai and Evan were staring at him from the other side of the table with wide eyes, looking for some kind of guidance from the older officer. Hunter wasn’t sure his own expression portrayed any confidence. The Galactic Coalition? How hard did she hit her head? Maybe whoever took him had stolen GCH uniforms or taken a GCH ship. It didn’t make sense for them to- why would they want to kidnap one of the most prominent men in the universe? Everyone in the galaxy would want their heads on a platter. It was ridiculous to think they’d do something like that, Commander Shirogane helped found the Coalition for christ’s sake-

“Steph, I need you to start from the beginning, okay?” Katie asked, moving away from her leg to grasp her metallic hand. Hunter pulled his thick bottom lip between his teeth in anticipation of her response.

The blonde woman squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push through the murk that was no doubt clouding her mind. “We were there to discuss- there were meetings about reparations from the former Empire to struggling planets. There was a party and someone- someone came up to talk to me. I looked back and the Commander was gone. I started looking . . . looking for him . . . looking . . .”

“Officer Blake, eyes open.” Kai was standing by her head now, lightly holding her temples. She grimaced. “I’m going to look for where you split your head open. Keep talking, okay?”

She managed something that you could loosely call a nod, groaning as Kai started moving her hair around. “I was looking for him but I didn’t find him- I found something . . . there was something-” Stephanie’s eyes shot open, blue eyes blown in shock as she remembered something important. “It was the Lion, Katie. The Lion. They had the Lion and they took the Commander-”

“The Black Lion?” piped up Evan. He went ignored as Steph continued to ramble on about the Galactic Coalition taking the Black Lion and Commander Shirogane, trying to force her way up to a sitting position.

Luz grabbed her leg, commanding her attention. “Blake, we believe you, but you gotta calm down. Kekumano is looking at your head.”

Stephanie visibly calmed at the teenager’s words, allowing Kai to continue to inspect her scalp as Luz rubbed calming circles on her knee. Hunter looked up at Katie, jutting his head off to the side. He wanted to talk. She got the message, handing Steph’s robotic hand to Evan before moving over to the windows. Stress was deeply ingrained on her face as she wrung her hands. Her obnoxious headband had fallen out and the fact that she needed a haircut was becoming more and more obvious to her assistant.

He leaned against the wall, eyes still trained on Stephanie on top of the work table. “What do you make of it?”

Katie let out a sound somewhere between exhausted and manic. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Those in power would do anything to keep it.”

“But the Galactic Coalition? It’s a peacekeeping force, not a governmental body.”

“They have soldiers, they have weapons, and evidently they have one of the Lions. How they found it is beyond me-” she sighed, running her hands through her hair “-all I know is that I have three teenagers and two Garrison Officers now implicated in an intergalactic incident hiding out in my lab.”

He stared at her incredulously. “You can’t believe that everyone in the GCH is part of some conspiracy.”

“Most foot soldiers and bureaucrats up there are human. We’ve started three world wars without the help of alien technology. Not everyone thinks the end of space travel is camaraderie and growth of knowledge.”

“You think someone’s trying to start a war?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d wanted to be a part of the GCH since he was a little boy. To think that someone would take the hope for a better galaxy and twist it like that-

“The good news is that you aren’t going to need stitches.” Kai’s voice draws their attention back to the table where Luz and Evan were helping Steph sit up. “There’s a couple of pain meds in here that you can take, but honestly, the best thing for you right now would be a good shower and a few hours in a healing pod.”

“When did you learn so much about medicine?” asked Luz, clearly skeptical of Kai’s expertise now that no one was on the brink of death.

He frowned at her. “Despite what you may think, I don’t blow off all of my classes.”

“Thank you, Kai,” Katie interrupted, patting him on the shoulder as she walked back over to the group. The room stayed silent as Steph swallowed the painkillers supplied by Kai. “Did you get these in a fight? WIth GCH officers?”

The blonde nodded. “They caught me right after I found the Lion. There were too many for me to fight my way out-”

The intercom crackling to life sent a shiver down Hunter’s spine as Iverson’s voice filled the air around them. “Attention students and staff. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation golf-six. Repeat, all students and staff are to remain where they are until further notice.”

“That can’t be good,” muttered Katie, immediately turning to rifle through her drawers.

“Um, Commander Holt? What’s going on?” asked Evan, he was still holding tightly to Stephanie’s hand. She had the strength to wrap the arm over his shoulders in a comforting gesture.

“Golf is the Galactic Coalition’s designation code, they’re probably combing the building for Steph before she starts telling people there’s an intergalactic nightmare stewing about two planets from here. A-ha!” Finding what she was looking for, Katie turned back to the group. “I hope this thing works.”

“You hope what works?” questioned Hunter, arms crossed over his chest.

“My original design for the Standing Teludav. I wanted it to be a small personal device but the range is too short. You can’t port off of the planet, but it will get Steph and I out of here, and that’s all that matters right now,” she pressed buttons as she spoke, calibrating the device or entering coordinates. Hunter couldn’t tell because of how small it was.

“You and Blake? What about us?” demanded Luz.

“You were here asking Officer Williams lab questions when the alarm went off. None of you have seen me all night,” she answered as she helped Steph slip to the floor. She stumbled a bit but held her footing as Katie slung Steph’s good arm over her shorter shoulders. “This is too dangerous for you children. You need to stay here.”

“There’s no way I’m letting Blake out of my sight.” Luz stepped in front of Katie, fire glinting in her eyes.

Evan stood up next to her. “They’ll find the footage of us helping Officer Blake in here if they haven’t already.”

“And I doubt that they’ll have too many qualms about roughing us up for answers,” Kai added. “Children or not.”

Katie’s eyes darted between the three of them before looking over at Hunter. She was clearly begging for a lifeline. There wasn’t much time for him to weigh his options in his mind. Katie had a better chance at protecting Stephanie, but if she left she’d be leaving all of them vulnerable. He proceeded with caution, choosing his words carefully. “If this is as big as you think it is . . . you aren’t going to find answers from the outside of it. You’re the only one who might be able to figure out what’s going on around here, Katie.”

Oh, she did not like this plan. He could see it in the way her eyebrow was twitching. Steph squeezed the Commander’s hand where it was anchoring her arm. “I don’t like it either, but it’s the only way.”

Katie let out a huff, squeezing Stephanie’s hand back before looking at Hunter. “I’ve set the Teludav to take you to Lance’s farm. Tell him that I sent you and he’ll do what he can to help. You’ll have to be fast, they won’t be able to track the exact location of the portal, but once they realize it’s near Lance’s they’ll figure it out. It won’t be long before they send officers after you.”

Hunter nodded, taking the phone-sized device from her hand. It was heavier than he expected but it looked straightforward enough. Katie carefully passed Stephanie off to Kai before giving them all one last look. “Find a ship and get off the planet as fast as you can. It’ll be harder for them to find you out there.”

She pulled Hunter into an unexpected hug, squeezing him tightly. “Be safe out there. Protect those kids.”

“I will.”


	5. Juniberries

Evan had been through plenty of teludavs in his relatively young life. If there was one thing his parents loved, it was travel. He’d practically grown up on star-yachts, sailing through the galaxy from one planet to another. Whenever they’d passed through one of the Galactic Coalition’s teludavs, he’d be standing at the window, nose pressed against the glass as he watched them teleport from one side of space to the next. Going through Commander Holt’s prototype was nothing like he remembered. It wasn’t a smooth transition by any means. His feet felt like they were on backward and it was like all of the air had been ripped from his lungs. He had little grace as he tumbled to the ground, mucking up his jacket and rolling through the dirt until he came to a stop on his back.

The stars shone brightly down on him, not a cloud in sight. It was almost impossible for him to pick out the few constellations that he knew. They were far enough away from any major city that the sky was spilling over with distant dots of light. It was no exploding star, but it was still something else.

“I thought Katie said this thing couldn’t go off-world?” Officer Williams' question ripped him from the moment.  _ Right. This isn’t a sightseeing trip. _ The rest of their small party had stumbled out of the portal behind him. Luz had her head between her knees, long hair brushing against the field of flowers they had plummeted into and Officer Williams was resting his hands on his hips, surveying the area. Kai and Officer Blake weren’t too far behind them, both looking like they might lose their lunch. At least he hadn’t been the only one not to enjoy their portal hopping.

“We aren’t off-world,” Evan responded as he stood, wiping the dirt off of his dark jeans as best he could. There was a line of crushed flowers where he’d rolled that made him wince in sympathy. “This is Lance’s farm. He grows Altean Juniberries in honor of Princess Allura.”

“Of course you know that,” muttered Luz as she dropped down to a sitting position, taking a look around. “Do you have the directions to the old guy's house in that freaky little brain of yours too?”

He pointed a finger to a nearby dirt road. “Up that path and take a left.” Everyone looked at him in disbelief. He didn’t spare them a sheepish grin or an apology as he continued. “I came here for my eleventh birthday and went on this big tour. I didn’t actually get to meet Lance but I did see him from far away!”

“Right,” Officer Williams turned to the rest of the group with his back facing Evan. “Kekumano and I can stay here with Blake, she’s in no shape to walk that far. Alto, you take Evan to go and find Lance.”

Luz scoffed, looking up at him from her place on the ground. “Who died and put you in charge?”

“I didn’t realize you’d been promoted, cadet.” Hunter folded his arms over his chest as Luz got up looking standoffish.  _ Oh, God. _

“I’m not leaving her alone out here-”

“Guys!”

Officer Blake still had a hand on Kai’s shoulder but she was standing as straight as she could on her own. Her blue eyes were dark as she tried to compose herself. She looked tired. Scared. He didn’t blame her. They were all staring into the depths of some insane conspiracy that involved taking the Lions and kidnapping Commander Shirogane. She’d almost been killed over it and now she was probably blaming herself for dragging the rest of them into it as well. Evan frowned sympathetically as she continued in a low, controlled voice, her years as a soldier being brought to the surface. “We’re running on borrowed time as it is. We can’t be getting into fights right now and we can’t waste time splitting up and finding each other again.”

“Evan Yang, right?” It very suddenly registered to Evan that Officer Blake knew his name and was talking to him. He nodded quickly. He didn’t realize he was even on her radar. Maybe she had asked Iverson about him before she left for the GCH-

“You can get us to Lance’s right?”

“Yeah I- yes, I can,” he stammered out his response, breaking into a cheek splitting smile

“Then lead the way.” She returned his smile as best she could, leaning back into Kai. Seeing the older boy fumble slightly, Luz quickly moved to help support her weight, trading off to give his shoulders a break.

Evan shoved his hands into his pockets, moving toward the nearby service road with a determined gaze. He attempted to stay light on his feet to avoid crushing more of the rare flowers than he already had, but based on Officer William’s trampling and the fact that Steph was dragging her feet more than she was walking, he figured it wasn’t doing much good. Hopefully, Lance wouldn’t be angry about the flowers. Their case was weak enough as it was. Truth be told, Evan wasn’t quite sure what Commander Holt thought Lance would be able to do to help. Sure, he was an amazing man and Evan was absolutely thrilled to be meeting him, but it wasn’t like he could smuggle them off the planet from his farm. They probably would’ve had better luck using the miniature teladuv to jump to a spaceport before stealing a ship.

His shoe caught a dip in the road and Evan almost went tumbling. If any of the people behind him noticed the fumble they failed to say anything. A sigh of relief loosened his shoulders as he took the left that led to Lance’s private residence. Was he really just thinking about stealing a ship? He’d done a lot of questionable things before. Trespassing, breaking and entering, hell, right now he was aiding and abetting a known fugitive. Everything before tonight, that had just been messing around, but this was real. Jail real. Getting shot at real. Getting killed real. His pulse quickened at the thought and he tried to take a deep breath. Panicking would only make things more difficult. He could process later. Right now, people were counting on him to get a job done, and he was going to do it.

“This is it,” Evan said in a hushed tone as he turned to face the rest of the group.

The house wasn’t anything special. It was small with chipped pale blue paint covering the slats. The architecture was old, built pre-World War III, or at least made to look like it was. It had charm, but it confused Evan. He had always thought that all of the paladins would live in the grandest houses money could buy. Or at least in ones built in the last fifty years. 

“For one of the most influential people in the universe, this guy has really lax security.” Kai’s comment earned him a glare from Luz and an eye roll from Officer Williams.

“He probably doesn’t think anyone has the balls to just walk up to his front door, genius.” Luz’s face scrunched up as she bit back at Kai. He stuck his tongue out at her attempt to insult him. “What are you, five?”

“Stow it, cadets,” Officer Blake ordered, tightening her grip on Luz’s hand. “Let’s get a move on before the GCH catches up to us.”

None of them moved at her words. Evan’s eyes scanned the sky for any movement. Nothing but stars and satellites blinked back at him. He still couldn’t believe that the Galactic Coalition had done what Officer Blake said they did. Secretly acquiring the Black Lion, kidnapping Commander Shirogane, trying to kill one of their own, one of their best, to cover it up, it just didn’t make any sense. What was their motive? Evan knew that people started wars to get rich, he was as blue-blooded as they came. The GCH was supposed to be a bridge across the universe, to think that it had been corrupted so easily . . .

“Come on, guys,” Luz was the one to pull them all out of their thoughts. “Let’s go wake the old man up.”

“Actually,” Evan couldn’t stop himself from correcting her, “he’s really only forty-eight years old and-”

“Evan,” Luz growled it as a warning.  _ Right. Bigger picture. _

With that, their small group ambled up to the porch, pooling around the door. Luz helped Officer Blake grab hold of the porch railing to support herself but stayed close by in case something happened. Officer Williams leaned against the railing on the other side clearly trying to collect himself. Kai gave Evan a small smile before pushing him toward the front door, encouraging him to knock. He lifted one of his fists, but he couldn’t do it.

“Dude,” Kai sighed. “What are you doing?”

Evan turned back to face them, worry written all over his face. “Well, it’s just that Lance McClain is like, one of my personal heroes, and I feel really bad just coming to his house in the middle of the night and knocking on his door, I’m gonna make a bad impression.”

“Is this actually happening right now?” Officer Williams covered his eyes as he turned away.

Luz stared at him in disbelief. “You see Commander Holt like every day.”

“But I knew that going into the Garrison and I’ve had, like, no time to prepare myself here and I’m really freaking out guys-”

“Evan,” Kai grabbed his shoulders, leaning down to look him in the eye. “I know that this is hard for you bud, but you’ve got to get your shit together, like, right now because this is embarrassing to watch.”

“I know you guys think this is really dumb but Voltron has been the most important thing in my life for years and I just don’t want to disappoint any-”

“Oh my- move!” Luz shoved past both of them and banged against the doorway harder than was necessary. Something inside making a cracking noise.

Evan looked appalled. “Did you just break Lance McClain’s door frame?”

“Were you going to knock anytime soon, short-stack?”   


“Short-stack?”

Kai shoved Evan behind him to get in Luz’s face. “Hey, step off, Alto!”

“What’s your problem?” Her mood flared from annoyance to anger at Kai’s intrusion and Evan took another step backward. He did not want to have any part in this.

“What’s my problem? Your attitude is my problem. You’ve been giving everyone lip all night and I’m getting tired of it.”

She jut her chin up at him, fire in her eyes as she spoke. “I can give you a black eye instead if that’s what you want.”

He glared back, matching her intensity. “I’d like to see you try.”

Luz let out a frustrated yell as she lunged at him. He moved to block the punch but Evan was faster, pulling his leg out from under him and knocking Kai on his ass. Without anything to hit, Luz’s momentum sent her tumbling forward and right onto Kai. She landed a punch before Officer Williams grabbed her by the waist and yanked her away, both of them screaming at each other to stop it as Kai let out a slur of obscenities from his spot on the ground. Evan could hear Officer Blake yelling at them to calm down as he stood there with his hands in his hair. This was a disaster. How the hell were they supposed to stop the most powerful people in the universe from starting a war if they couldn’t even get along for ten minutes without trying to kill each other? 

“What the fuck are you kids doing on my porch?”

Everyone froze at the new voice. They all turned slowly to see a man standing in the door frame with a flabbergasted look on his face. He had on pale blue robes and darker slippers shaped like Lions covering his feet. Evan’s heart sunk as he saw the matching blue sickle shapes underneath his tired eyes. How had this managed to get worse?

“We can explain!” Evan shouted, holding his hands up like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have been. Officer Williams dropped Luz and Kai scrambled to his feet. “Commander Holt sent us.”

He stared at them incredulously. “Pidge sent . . . you.” It didn’t sound much like a question. Evan opened his mouth to explain further but Lance cut him off with an unimpressed laugh. “Weird prank, but funny. You can tell her that she got me this time, you guys were good.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but she didn’t send us as a joke,” Officer Blake dragged herself away from her support beam as she spoke, coming to a stop next to Evan before offering a hand to the paladin. He looked her up and down before tentatively shaking her hands. “I’m Officer Stephanie Blake. Two weeks ago I was assigned to escort Commander Shirogane to Galactic Coalition Headquarters. He was kidnapped and I was attacked by GCH personnel after discovering what they had done. Katie sent us here because she thought that you might be able to help us.”

He looked over the rest of their group, dragging his lower lip through his teeth. “You kids better come inside and get cleaned up, then. I’ll start some coffee and you can tell me this mess from the beginning.”

Officer Blake smiled in thanks and Evan quickly melded to her side, helping her limp through the front entryway and into his hero’s home.


	6. Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the break! I started a new job and needed a minute to get used to it. We're back on the regular updating schedule!

Luz held the black mug Lance had served her in a death grip despite the heat. The strong smell of coffee was usually one that she found soothing, but with everything going on, she couldn’t bring herself to calm down all that much. She couldn’t believe that she let Kai goad her into a fight like that. The disappointed look Steph had managed to give her as she limped through the front door was somehow much worse than any of the ones her own mother had given her before she found a way to avoid seeing her altogether. Now she’d been forced to sit in the corner of the breakfast table, sandwiched between Evan and Hunter just in case she got any swell ideas about hitting Kai again.

Speaking of, the little weasel was glaring daggers at her from across the room where he was nursing an ice pack to his freshly bruised face. Luz looked back down at her cup before taking a long sip. Their famous companion gave her a bit of side-eye from where he was pouring his second cup of joe. Honestly, she couldn’t take him seriously with those marks under his eyes, war hero or not. He looked up at all of them as he leaned against his kitchen island. “So you’re telling me that Katie Holt sent you to me because the Galactic Coalition is secretly plotting . . . something.”

“Something they were willing to cover up by kidnapping Commander Shirogane and-”

Lance cut Evan off as he started telling Lance what happened for the third time that night. “I saw the way Officer Blake looked, no need to rehash it for me.”

“Sorry,” he replied, eyes focused down on the wood of the breakfast table. Luz hadn’t seen Evan be compliant to an authority figure since she’d known him. She may have only known him for a few weeks, but she was pretty sure that Evan held the Garrison’s record for longest disciplinary stint. He wasn’t exactly one for sitting quietly and apologizing for speaking out of turn. Impressing this Voltron dude must’ve been really important to him.  _ I really fucked that one up, didn’t I? _ Luz tried to push the thought down with another sip of coffee.

“Thanks for the shower,” Stephanie’s warm voice broke the silence as she entered the kitchen. She looked a lot better now that her hair wasn’t half soaked in blood. She’d replaced that sad excuse for a splint with a real one that Lance had from a sprain years before. She’d lost her officer’s coat and replaced it with a gray crewneck Lance had lying around. If they’d been in a grocery store, Luz might’ve suspected she was a normal grad student who was having a really rough night. Unfortunately, they were all pretty far from that. “I trust these guys filled you in?”

Lance pushed a blue mug towards her, still steaming. “Intergalactic conspiracy. Who would’ve thought, huh?”

“Sir, I don’t know if you’re taking this-” Hunter bit down on his thick lower lip, clearly trying to stop himself from being rude. “You don’t seem very worried, is what I’m trying to say.”

“Understatement of the century,” Luz mumbled into her cup. A sharp elbow found its way into her side and she shot a glare down at Evan. His eyes were trained on Lance without any indication of guilt on his face.  _ Why you little . . . _

Lance caught Luz’s attention again before she could start thinking about all of the mean things her mother had taught her to never say about another person. “Sorry about that, I’m still a little tired. I’ve been up since six and was about to go to bed when I found the circus on my doorstep.”

The circus was a little bit of an overstatement, but Luz got the point. They had kind of marched into the guy's house and told him the Coalition he risked his life to build as a teenager was a hunk of crap and was probably trying to kill one of his best friends. One would think that kind of news would raise some alarm bells, but here was Lance McClain, Paladin of Voltron, cool as a cucumber and drinking out of a coffee mug shaped like a robot head. Then it dawned on Luz that it wasn’t just any robot head. It was Voltron. She felt like she could snap a pencil. Or a bone.

“Hey,” she stood up as she spoke, all of the heads in the room swiveled to her, “if you aren’t going to help us, we need to leave. The commander said we wouldn’t have very long until the GCH realized where we went and I don’t really want to be here when they come in guns blazing.”

There was silence for a moment as they all stared. Kai was the one to break it with something that might’ve been a snort. Luz blinked at him, trying to hold back her anger.  _ Blake will kill me if I hit him again. Blake will kill me if I hit him again. Blake will- _

Stephanie sighed, resting her forearms on the counter and leaning toward Lance. “I know that we’re asking for a lot, but if you could give us a ship or a car- anything- to help us get off the grid. These kids-” Steph spared them a small glance before her blue eyes met Lance’s again. “-they didn’t do anything wrong and I can’t let what happened to me happen to them. We just need to lay low until Katie can find out what’s going on.”

Luz had to give the woman some credit, she was doing a pretty good job holding herself together for someone who had been half delirious an hour ago. Honestly, she was surprised none of them were having a mental breakdown yet. Hunter had looked a little close when they were in Holt’s lab, but things were oddly calm given the circumstances. She was beginning to suspect that it hadn’t quite set in for any of them yet. She’d had plenty of experience with that feeling last year, and if she was remembering things right, it was going to be a real shitshow when the other shoe decided to drop on them.

“Well, I can give you my ship and some supplies, but I think you all might have to do a little bit more than lie low for a few months.”

Luz’s brain stuttered at his words. “Huh?”

“The GCH isn’t going to stop with just one Lion. They probably have people out there looking for the other four right now and if they get all five of them no one is going to be able to stop them from forcing their will on the universe.” A tightness built in Luz’s chest as Lance continued to speak.  _ Have Hunter and Evan been this close to me this whole time?  _ “Someone needs to step in and keep them out of their hands.”

Hunter looked appalled, dark eyes as big as saucers. “And that has to be us? Running away is one thing, but actively fighting against the Galactic Coalition? We don’t even know why they have the Black Lion in the first place. It could all be perfectly innocent!”

“I don’t know, what could be nefarious about secretly finding a robot superweapon and kidnapping the guy who used to pilot it?” Kai burst out from the other side of the room. Luz matched his anger, turning on Hunter instead of the curly-haired boy.

“Or trying to kill Stephanie?”

Hunter spared a glance at the black and blue of Steph’s face before turning his gaze to the floor. “All I know is that Katie told me to look after you all and I’m not quite sure putting ourselves right in the biggest military force in the galaxy’s line of fire is the best way to do that.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t need some man I’ve never even held a conversation with to tell me what I can and can’t-”

“You really need us to protect the Lions?”

The smallness of Evan’s voice caught Luz off-guard. He was only what? Fifteen? She and Kai were only a couple of years older. To think that they were being asked to- she looked at Lance again. He was a teenager too when he had to save the universe, and he was being asked to do a lot more than play a game of intergalactic keep away. There was a deep sadness in his eyes. She’d noticed it the moment she saw him, but now it looked like his pupils were trying to stop themselves from drowning in it.  _ What was it that Evan said about the Juniberries? That he was growing them to honor someone? _

Stephanie held her chin up a little higher. “How do we do it?”

Lance gave her a small smile and a flicker of something that might’ve been pride. “The Voltron Museum on New Altea. A friend of mine modeled it after our old ship. It’s what we used to find the Lions and I’m sure that there's a way to track them somewhere in there. If you guys can keep even one Lion out of the GCH’s hands you’ll be doing more than enough.”

“Wait,” Kai pulled the icepack away from his face as he spoke. “You’re not coming with us?”

Lance winced at the question. “Trust me, I don’t want to send you kids on your own, but if I go with you they’ll know that Pidge sent you here and they’ll never be able to prove that the Galactic Coalition is even up to something.”

The stillness spoke for itself. They were freaked out, even Luz, and she didn’t shake easily. Kai had his cold pack pressed up against his forehead like it would calm his disposition. Hunter was wringing his huge hands so forcefully that Luz was a little worried that he would rub his dark skin raw. Luz pressed down on the bridge of her nose as Evan started bouncing his leg with the strength and speed of someone that just snorted a line of Karolian powder. Were they really the only thing standing between the most important, influential organization in the galaxy and a full-blown war?

_ Shoe meet floor. _

“Well guys, we don’t have time to waste. I’ll take Luz and get the ship started, the boys can help you load the ship with any of those supplies you were talking about.” She clapped the man on the shoulder as she spoke. “Thank you for doing this. I know that it can’t be easy for you.”

The war hero gave her a small smile. “Don’t thank me until you kids are safely out of Earth’s orbit. The ship’s out in the barn, try not to scratch her up.”

With a smile and a flick of Steph’s head, the two girls were headed toward the kitchen side door and out toward the barn. The second the screen clanged shut behind them, a cold hand wrapped around Luz’s arm in a vice grip. She stumbled for a moment before righting herself. Steph’s leg had slipped her mind during all of the excitement. The pain that had seemed to magically disappear the moment they got to Lance’s house seemed to be back in full force as she winced freely with every step. It occurred to Luz that Steph had chosen her to help her get the ship prepped because she felt comfortable letting her guard down with her, but Luz expelled the thought the moment it crossed her mind. Steph probably just didn’t want to leave her on her own and run the risk of her giving anyone else a black eye.

The barn was huge, the ship he’d sent them to find was taking up the majority of the space with the entryway being used for storage. There were a handful of crates along with the odd farming tool leaning against them. The ship was a decent size with a nondescript gray, blue, and black paint job that was peeling in a few places. He probably mostly used it more for his farm work than he did for casual star sailing. Judging by the way the ceiling was structured, there was probably a button somewhere that would open the large hatch above them and let them fly out of there.

“Thanks,” Steph grunted as Luz helped her sit down on a crate labeled ‘SEEDS’, a quiet relief washing over her face. “I’m sorry that you got dragged into all of this.”

“Don’t worry about it, Blake,” Luz offered her her best comforting smile. “The Garrison was getting a little boring anyway.”

Stephanie laughed as Luz made her way over to the ship, running her hand along its side, feeling the odd bumps and ridges. “I can’t believe this guy thinks we’re gonna save the galaxy in this hunk of junk.”

“That guy knows a lot more about this kind of thing than you do, Luz.”

“Still,” she mumbled under her breath as she rolled her eyes. Finding the side control panel, she pressed a few buttons on the keypad until she heard the tell-tale sound of pressurized air being released. The ramp moved down slowly and she looked back over her shoulder at Steph. “Let’s load you up, Officer.”

Stephanie stuck her tongue out childishly but stood and waited for Luz to help walk her across the barn. It was weird seeing her act so normal when she was just doling out orders like a general in Lance’s kitchen, but Luz didn’t mind all that much. Just the two of them being together gave her a sense of normalcy. Like they were back in the Garrison drinking coffee while Steph tried to get her to talk about her feelings. It was . . . nice.

“Okay,” Steph admitted as they stepped on board. The walls were padded instead of being made of the streamlined metal they were used to at the Garrison. Some of the foam was even protruding where the casing had been torn. “Maybe you were right about this thing being a little trashed.”

“Right? You’d think he’d be able to afford a nicer ship.” At least the cockpit was in slightly better shape. Luz deposited Steph in the pilot's chair before moving to start flipping switches on. She’d never been happier that the Garrison trained them to operate shuttles from different cultures, otherwise, she’d be completely lost in this thing. A groan escaped her lips as she noticed two lion-shaped bobbleheads on the dash, one red and one blue.

Steph leaned forward to see what Luz was looking at. “What?”   


“Evan’s gonna lose his mind over these,” she lamented flicking the heads and watching them bounce. “He’s a big Voltron guy. I’m pretty sure he’s got an eidetic memory, there’s no way a normal person holds all that stupid knowledge in their brain.”

“We come bearing gifts!” announced Kai’s voice from behind them. He was carrying two backpacks by their handles and seemed to have picked a coat for himself out of Lance’s collection, green with orange bands around the biceps. When he noticed her expression, he started flexing before turning in a circle to show the thing off. “Jealous, Luz?”

“Of you? Never.”

“I thought you’d say that.” He put down one of his bags and unzipped the other, pulling out a white cable knit sweater that had been packed on top. “I found you this old lady cardigan. I thought you might get cold in your crop top.”

“That was very sweet of you, Kai,” Steph interrupted before Luz could throw out an insult. She gave Luz a look that said ‘please don’t start anything’ as she continued. “Why don’t you two go make sure everything’s ready to go.”

Luz grumbled out something that might’ve been a ‘fine’ as she stomped out of the cockpit with heavy feet, nabbing the sweater from Kai as she passed him. The snicker he let out as she pulled on the cardigan wasn’t lost on Luz. She clenched her fists.  _ Stupid pretty boy thinks he’s so funny, huh? Well I’m about to be- _

“You guys all ready to go?” Kai asked as they descended the ramp. Hunter, Evan, and Lance turned to them with smiles.

“Looks like it,” Lance admitted, placing his hands on the other boy's shoulders and giving them a push toward them. The old man seemed weirdly sad as he surveyed the four of them standing next to each other. “ This shouldn’t be up to you guys. It shouldn’t have been up to us thirty years ago either. Find the Lions and protect them. If everything goes well, no one is going to need to use them.”

“Thank you, sir,” Hunter said, stepping forward to shake his hand. “We’ll do our part.”

“I’m sure you will,” he moved down the line shaking their hands, stopping on Luz, and giving them all one last oddly forlorn look. “Color-coded and everything huh.”

Hunter’s eyebrows creased at the comment. Luz echoed his confusion at the odd statement. “What?”

“Nothing,” Lance replied, sighing as he stepped back. “You kids be safe. And remember-”

“Not a scratch,” Kai, Hunter, and Evan groaned to Luz’s surprise. Clearly, he’d beaten that phrase into their skulls while gathering supplies. With a few more waves goodbye, they clambered on board the ship, those that hadn’t seen the inside already voicing their disgust with the interior.

“And he was telling us not to wreck this thing,” Hunter scoffed. “Ridiculous.”

“Stand down, Williams,” Steph answered. She’d gotten up from the pilot’s chair to greet them, bright smile contrasting against her beat-up face. “Let’s get this show on the road, yeah?”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Kai grinned much to Luz’s displeasure as he reached forward and hit the switch to open the bay doors above them. “You're gonna let me fly right?”   


“You?” Luz quacked. “You couldn’t fly a paper airplane, Kekumano.”

“They’re very hard to make!”

“I’m flying,” Steph interrupted. “You two can take turns if we make it out of Earth’s orbit without being shot down.”

Her statement laid a dark blanket over their upbeat mood. Luz had almost forgotten about the fact that the GCH might shoot them down before they could even get out of the solar system. She bit her lip, hoping that they wouldn’t be able to identify Lance’s ship until they were long gone. A warm hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder as Stephanie took her place in the pilot’s chair. Her face scrunched up in anger as she whipped to Kai, but the look on his face held her back. He was scared. They all were. She reached up and placed her hand on top of his with a nod, holding tight as the ship began to rise into the air. 


	7. Hunk's Legendary Eats

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late chapter? What do you mean late chapter?

Kai had always found space creepily quiet. He’d only been there a handful of times, mostly when his parents decided to visit Alani on assignment. Even times like these, trapped on a relatively small ship with five different people, things were . . . oddly silent. They’d managed to get away from the tiny blue planet they called home and had forced Steph to go rest in the ship’s only bunk after they had passed by Mars. Luz had promptly taken flight controls, and honestly, Kai was too tired to fight with her about it. He had tried to get a few hours of sleep like Evan and Hunter were doing, but he was finding it difficult to do so on the cold metallic floor. Sighing deeply, he checked his watch again. He and Luz had agreed to switch off at the halfway point between Earth and the teludav station at the edge of the solar system and they should be there anytime now.

Walking into the cockpit, Kai realized that he had never seen Luz in the pilot’s chair before. She sat rigidly like she was terrified that something would go wrong and the half a second it took her to sit up straight would be the thing that killed her and half of the crew. If someone took a snapshot of her hands on the controls, he would absolutely believe that it had been pulled straight from a Garrison flight manual. He’d known that she was a straight-laced pilot, but this was all heinously by the book. She even did her best to ignore him walking in. The biggest form of acknowledgment she gave was the way that she tensed up at the sound of the pressurized door that separated this area from the rest of the ship. Kai couldn’t help but grin at the way her knuckles shone white against her brown skin.

“You couldn’t be more terrified flying this thing, could you?” She managed to look away from the stars ahead of her long enough to spare him a cold glare that only served to make him snicker. He could almost perfectly imagine the way that her eyes were rolling at the sound of his laughter. It only encouraged him to move forward, leaning himself against the edge of the control console to her right. Now he could perfectly see how much his presence was ticking her off. “My face is fine, by the way.”

She pushed out a response through grit teeth. “I didn’t ask.”

“Oh, I know.” He gave her a smirk as he spoke. Was it possible for her to hold onto the controls any tighter? His eyes trailed away from her, watching the stars pass them by. They must’ve been somewhere around Neptune's orbital pathway by now. “How does she fly?”

“Like a fifteen-year-old freighter.”

Kai looked back at her, waiting for her to say something else, but she continued to stare straight past him, mouth pulled into a thin line. It took every ounce of his willpower not to make a comment about the Garrison-issue stick up her ass. Clearly, she wasn’t in the mood and he wasn’t exactly itching to have his face half swollen like Stephanie’s. His hand moved up to his left eye where the skin was still tender. The girl certainly packed a punch.

“What are you smiling about, Kekumao?”

“Huh?” Kai blinked rapidly as he looked back at Luz.  _ Am I smiling? _ “What? I’m not.”

Her disbelief read plainly on her face but she didn’t push the issue, refocusing on the road ahead of her. He followed suit, arms crossed in front of him as he stared at the sky. He couldn’t help but wonder what his sister was doing right now. Alani was stationed at Galactic Coalition Headquarters. Did she know what had happened in the last few hours? There was no way that she knew about what had happened with Stephanie. They had been in the same graduating class at the Garrison. She wouldn’t take part in something like- whatever the hell this was. He let out a tense breath. Everything was happening so fast. Finding the Voltron Lions? Hiding them from the biggest organization in the universe? Stephanie and Hunter were the only fully-fledged officers on board and Hunter wasn’t even combat trained. 

“Hey, do you wanna take the reins for a while?” Kai snapped back around to Luz. She had eased up on the controls and was watching him with her dark eyes. Oddly enough, there was something entirely sincere floating around in them. His mind momentarily flitted back to the way she had looked at him when the ship was taken off. He couldn’t tell you what had possessed him to place his hand on her shoulder then, but the way she was looking at him right now told him that this was some sort of return of the favor. He had been there for her and now she was going to be there for him in her own strange way.

He gave her a small nod and they moved quickly, taking only a second to switch spots with each other. It felt good to be in the pilot’s seat, even if it was in one of the oldest, shittiest ships he had ever seen. The best way he could describe the feeling was as rejuvenating, like sliding into a bathtub at the end of a long day and finally being able to relax. After the day that they’d had, he was glad to have something happening that felt right.

“I’m going to go attempt to sleep, try not to crash us into a meteor or something.” It was intended to be an insult, but the words had lost all of their bite since they were coming on the tail end of her actually doing something nice for him. She seemed to consider him for a moment longer before speaking, looking everywhere except right at him while she did. “And I’m sorry about your face.”

“Hey,” he said, catching her wandering eyes and doing his best to look like he honestly meant what he was saying. “Thanks. Don’t work yourself up over it, I was being stupid anyway.”

Her mouth contorted upwards in a moment so quick that he was a blink from completely missing it. Then, she took her leave of the cockpit, pressurized doors closing behind her with finality. Had Luz Alto just smiled at him? Without him doing something incredibly stupid and damaging to his reputation first?  _ Will wonders never cease?  _ He still couldn’t even believe they’d managed to have a positive interaction at all. He and Luz didn’t exactly have the best track record with each other. He’d been starting fights with her for so long that he almost couldn’t remember why he’d even started doing it in the first place. His eyebrows creased together as he thought about it. Pressing Luz’s buttons had been one of the only things he actually  _ liked _ about being at the Garrison.

The idea that Luz Alto had unknowingly been one of the only people who had made the past few years anywhere near bearable did not sit right with Kai. Being in space for so long was messing with his head. Or maybe she’d given him a concussion when she hit him earlier. Yeah. That seemed a lot more likely. He’d never been one for introspection and he wasn’t about to start now. Doing his best to set all of that aside, he focused on the stars that were laid out in front of him. He just needed to get them to the teludav station in one piece.  _ That should be easy enough. _

It was one of the oldest stations in the Coalition’s Teludav Network, a multi-trillion-dollar project that had resulted in stations connecting as many major star systems to each other as they could. They also served as a handy way to log what part of the galaxy any given ship could be in, seeing as the station logged every ship that passed through. It was still possible to travel without passing through a single station if you needed to keep a low profile, but the reward of decimating your travel time was too great to pass up. At least it was for them. The GCH would know exactly where they were once they passed through it but they didn’t exactly have the time to fly all the way to New Altea on their own. Plus, he wasn’t exactly confident in their ship’s ability to make the trip all in one piece.

Kai focused on flying as the hours passed, letting himself get lost in the feeling of it. His companions appeared in the cockpit one by one as they neared the edge of the system. Evan was first, flicking Lance’s lion bobbleheads over and over while giving an in-depth recollection of the dream he’d had about the five of them taking a trip to the beach together. Kai could’ve gone without the part of it where he wiped out on his board and everyone made fun of him but Evan was insistent that it was “important to the plot”. Hunter was next. Evidently, he’d gone down and given the engine a once over and thought that Lance was somehow worse at maintaining the internals of his ship than he was at maintaining its appearance. That didn’t sit too well with any of them. It was a miracle that the GCH let them get anywhere near the teludav station in the first place. If there was a firefight once they passed through it to Altea they were absolutely fucked.  _ Great. _

Luz didn’t announce her presence as she came in, choosing to hang back by the door and watch Evan grill Hunter about the details of working so closely with a former paladin of Voltron every day. If that kid was anything it was dedicated. Kai looked back over his shoulder at Luz with a snicker. He didn’t care much about the whole Voltron thing, but he knew that she couldn’t stand Evan talking about the giant space robot every chance he got.  _ This is going to be fun. _ “Hey, Ev, I have a question about-”

“Is that a Hunk’s Legendary Eats?” Kai’s eyes instinctively scanned over the view outside of the cockpit and saw nothing but stars. Head spinning toward Evan, he realized what he was talking about. The kid was poised over the ship’s map, smile bright and wide as he looked at the pilot. “Can we stop? Can we?”

Kai couldn’t tell if Luz looked more annoyed or unimpressed. “We have food on the ship.”

“Rations don’t count,” Evan scrunched his nose up like a rabbit as he stuck his tongue out at her before turning back to Kai. “Don’t you want a warm, home-cooked meal?”

To be completely honest, Kai wasn’t really that hungry. But he also couldn’t remember the last time he had a really good waffle either. Even better, that cold, dead look in Luz’s eyes seemed promising enough. “How long would it take?”

“An hour, in and out.”

“You can’t be serious, Kekumano,” Hunter complained from the other side of him. The superior officer was giving him a disapproving look that Kai was keen to ignore. “Stephanie told you to fly straight to the teludav station.”

“Yeah, well, Officer Blake’s asleep right now,” Kai defended himself. “Plus we can surprise her. She gets an extra hour of sleep and wakes up to a nice, warm breakfast. It’s a win-win.”

Hunter opened his mouth to fire something back but seemed to lose the willpower to fight against them as he looked back and forth between Kai and Evan. Closing his eyes and pressing one of his thumbs against his temple, he gave up. “Fine. Do whatever. I need coffee anyway.”

“Alright, three to one!” Kai pumped his fist in the air before holding the hand up for Evan to high-five him. He shot a wink back at the obviously perturbed Luz behind them as he corrected course to send them toward Pluto. “Sorry Alto, you’ve been outvoted.”

“I hope you choke on your food.”

Hunk’s Legendary Eats was an intergalactic chain of diners that the paladin had started after retiring the old robot lion. Kai had been to the one in Plaht City a few different times with Alani and their parents, especially when they were younger. He and Alani would build a wall with their menus and shoot straw wrappers and napkins over it with spoon catapults until a manager had to come over and tell them to stop. The restaurant’s slogan was either something about 'the best food being cooked with love’ or ‘bringing the love of home across the stars’- he couldn’t remember. He certainly wasn’t surprised that Evan was a fan of the place. The little guy regularly committed federal offenses so he could feel closer to his heroes, there was no way he was above eating at one of their chain restaurants. He could almost picture Evan sitting at a booth, drinking coffee all by himself while he poured over the Garrison’s vent schematics. He almost snorted at the thought of him tipping his waitress way too much and telling her to keep the change.

The diner had been built under an artificial atmosphere on Pluto’s largest moon and the place seemed deserted. The closest thing to civilization was a small house not far from the diner itself and a ship that clearly belonged to the place’s owner. Did the location only have one staff member? From what he remembered, Hunk’s was always pretty packed with people. Here, their footsteps echoed across what one could tentatively call the parking lot, the only other sound on the moon being the small bell ringing to announce their arrival as they walked through the door.

“Greetings!” Came a booming voice laced with excitement. Four heads whipped around to watch a Bl’argee duck through the swinging kitchen door. The man had a huge smile on his pink and orange face as he came up to them, shaking their hands two at a time with his four arms. “I’m Bl’aaks, your host, waiter, and chef. You kids can sit wherever you want, I’ll grab you a couple of menus!”

Hunter blinked at the rest of them as Bl’aaks waddled over to the counter to grab menus. “Is it just me, or is he a little too excited that we’re here?”   
  
“We Bl’argee have excellent hearing you know!” He interrupted. Kai stifled a laugh as Hunter’s soul left his body. Luz simply rolled her eyes, herding the boys toward the nearest booth. Their oldest compatriot slid into his seat, pressing himself as close to the window as he could get in shame as Luz slid in next to him. Evan and Kai did their best to pretend that they weren’t laughing as they dropped in across from them, knees knocking against knees as Bl’aaks returned with their menus and a tray of water glasses. “I hate to admit it, but you four are the first customers I’ve had out here in months.”

“Months?” Evan asked with obvious concern in his voice. Kai looked at his water glass a little suspiciously. They really couldn’t deal with food poisoning right now.

“No one comes out this way anymore! Ever since the GC opened the teludav in their dumb headquarters to public use everyone skips right past old Bl’aaks.” He frowned, one of his hands covering his heart while two of the others grabbed the pencil from behind his ear and the small notebook from the pocket of his four-armed apron. “But that’s enough about me. What can I get you kids?”

Evan rattled off his order by heart, Kai asked for those sickly sweet waffles from his youth, and Hunter requested for the coffee pot, a mug, and as many of those little creamer packets as Bl’aaks could find. Luz looked incredibly lost with her menu, eyes flitting between items and prices indecisively. Taking pity on her, Kai yoinked the menu from her hand. “We’ll take two more plates of those waffles. One for the lovely lady, and one for if anyone gets hungry on the road.”

“Ah, young love,” Bl’aaks chuckled at the way Luz glared at Kai, tucking the notebook back into his pocket.“That I can do! Anything else?”

“Could we get everything to go?” Hunter piped up. “We’re running a little behind schedule.”

“Road tripping, huh? I’ll see what I can do for you kids.” They stayed silent as Bl’aaks walked away, no one wanting to risk him overhearing something to contradict his assumption that they were a normal group of friends on a road trip and not wanted criminals trying to keep a low profile. As soon as the kitchen door swung shut, Luz kicked Kai in the shin.

“Ow!”

“What the hell, Kekumano?” She whisper-yelled at him with fire in her eyes. “You let him think that we’re dating!”

“As opposed to him reporting us for being suspicious?” asked Hunter. She shot him a glare and he huffed, reaching for his water glass. “Bigger picture please, Alto.”

“Here’s that coffee!” Bl’aaks announced his entrance as he pushed back into the dining area. Hunter thanked him with a nod before commencing to dump multiple types of creamer into perfectly good coffee.  _ Disgusting. _ Bl’aaks leaned toward Kai, making a show of talking to him instead of Luz.“I was going through the stuff in the back and found some whipped cream and strawberries. Want me to throw them on your girlfriend here’s order for ya?”

“She’d love that, thanks Bl’aaks.” Reaching across the table, he grabbed Luz’s hand and gave it a squeeze, unable to hide his shit-eating grin. “She just loves strawberries.”   


He let out a loud boisterous laugh, clapping Kai on the shoulder with enough strength to bruise. “All women do my two-armed friend, all women do!”

Evan couldn’t help but start snickering, even before Bl’aaks got back to the kitchen. Hunter was trying to hide his smile in his coffee mug, but they had already seen it. Luz looked about ready to commit her second major crime in the past twenty-four hours by reaching across the table and strangling him. The second the door slammed shut, she tore her hand away from his, disgust written all over her features. Kai burst out laughing and blew her a kiss as she seethed. “Never do that again.”

Kai ignored her comment, turning to Evan. “I’m having fun, Evan are you having fun?”

The boy smiled brightly at Luz. “I’m having a blast.”

“Hunter?”

“I’m not listening.” The older officer was looking out the window, doing a terrible job of pretending that he wasn’t invested in their antics.

Luz glared at the boys across from her. “You’re insufferable, Kekumano.”

“That’s part of my charm.”

The wait for their food wasn’t long seeing as their chef didn’t have much else to do, which Kai was a tad thankful for. Evan had been doing most of the talking while their food cooked and it had taken him all of ten minutes to loop back around to talking about Voltron again. Kai might not have cared much and yeah, he might’ve taken a lot of joy in the way Luz banged her forehead against their table, but he could only listen to so much Voltron talk himself before it started to get tiring. Hunter had even fallen asleep against the glass of the window they had parked themselves next to despite the massive amounts of caffeine and sugar running through his veins. He had just started snoring when Bl’aaks loudly announced himself and the completion of their food. Evan swiped the receipt before anyone else could take a look at it and quite literally climbed over Kai to walk with Bl’aaks over to the cash register, both chattering on about something Kai had already lost track of.

“Ready to go, babe?” Kai asked as he stood, offering Luz one of his hands to help her out of the booth.

Luz squeezed her fists shut as she looked at Kai with a sickly sweet smile. “As I’ll ever be, sweetheart.”

“Can we just go already?” Hunter groaned before downing the remains of his cup.

Kai sighed in defeat, dropping his hand and grabbing the plastic to-go bags that Bl’aaks had placed their food in. Kai got to the door first, opening it with one hand and then catching it with his foot to let Hutner and Luz walk out in front of him.

“Evan, let’s get a move on!” The younger boy frowned slightly, but quickly shook hands with Bl’aaks, wishing him well and thanking him for the meal and the hospitality before jogging after Kai. “You and Bl’aaks best friends now?”

“He’s a really interesting guy!” Evan exclaimed. “He was telling me about how he wants to get moved to a different location where he can cook for people again.”

Kai hummed with interest. “I guess we can add destroying the livelihood of a poor chef to the GCH’s growing list of crimes.”

“I guess,” Evan agreed, kicking a rock as they walked.

Sensing Evan's mood shift, Kai stopped to catch his attention. “We’re gonna be okay, Evan.”

“Yeah,” he slowly nodded, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jean jacket. “Of course.”

Kai tried to give Evan his best smile but he didn’t seem to cheer up much. The side of Kai’s mouth twitched downward at the sight. Evan could be a lot sometimes when he was talking your ear off without stopping to breathe, but he was just a kid. No one could blame him for looking for a little bit of normalcy in the midst of the mess that they’d gotten themselves into. Neither of the boys had even known Stephanie before they found her half-dead coming through the standing teludav less than a day ago, but they didn’t have much of a choice after that. Evan was probably freaking out under all of those layers of sunshine and happiness.

“Hey.” Evan looked up at Kai quizzically. “The last one to the ship has to explain to Officer Blake why we stopped without waking her up!”


End file.
